tained by patriotic Indian princes,
passed through Gaza at nine o'clock and went out towards Beit Hanun.
To the Lowland Division was given the important task of getting to the
right or northern bank of the wadi Hesi. These imperturbable Scots
left their trenches in the morning delighted at the prospect of once
more engaging in open warfare. They marched along the beach under
cover of the low sand cliffs, and by dusk had crossed the mouth of
the wadi and held some of the high ground to the north in face of
determined opposition. The 157th Brigade, after a march through very
heavy going, got to the wadi at five in the afternoon and saw the
enemy posted on the opposite bank. The place was reconnoitred and the
brigade made a fine bayonet charge in the dark, securing the position
between ten and eleven o'clock. On this and succeeding days the
division had to fight very hard indeed, and they often met the enemy
with the bayonet. One of their officers told me the Scot was twice
as good as the Turk in ordinary fighting, but with the bayonet his
advantage was as five to one. The record of the Division throughout
the campaign showed this was no too generous an estimate of their
powers. After securing Ali Muntar the 75th Division advanced over
Fryer's Hill to Australia Hill, so that they held the whole ridge
running north and south to the eastward of Gaza. The enemy still held
to his positions to the right of his centre, and from the Atawineh
Redoubt, Tank Redoubt, and Beer trenches there was considerable
shelling of Gaza and the Ali Muntar ridge throughout the day. A large
number of shells fell in the plantations on the western side of the
ridge; our mastery of the air prevented enemy aviators observing for
their artillery, or they would have seen no traffic was passing along
that way. We were using the old Cairo 'road,' and as far as I could
see not an enemy shell reached it, though when our troops were in the
town of Gaza there were many crumps and woolly bears to disturb the
new occupation. But all went swimmingly. It was true we had only
captured the well-cracked shell of a town, but the taking of it was
full of promise of greater things, and those of us who looked on the
mutilated remnants of one of the world's oldest cities felt we were
indeed witnesses of the beginning of the downfall of the Turkish
Empire. Next morning the 75th Division captured Beer trenches and Tank
and Atawineh Redoubts and linked up with the Irish Divi